Table of Contents. Sign-up form optimization 3. Social media 29. Online marketing 50. Offline marketing 67. Minimizing opt-outs 77

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2 48 Ways to Build Your List Table of Contents Sign-up form optimization 3 Social media 29 Online marketing 50 Offline marketing 67 Minimizing opt-outs 77 2 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

3 Optimize opt-ins Sign-up form optimization GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 3

4 48 Ways to Build Your List #1 Put your sign-up form on every page If people can t find your form, they can t sign up. So add your sign-up form to every single page of your site. Make it part of both the header and the footer so people can see the sign-up form eveywhere they go. The place to be is above the fold The header area and the area above the fold are valuable real estate on your website. Above the fold comes from newspaper publishing. It means the visible area above where the printed newspaper folds. It is the part of the newspaper with the greatest visibility. Websites have an above the scroll line, but we call that above the fold, too. It s a little different depending on which computer and browser your visitor uses. For right now, don t get too worried about where above the fold is on your site. Just focus on the part of the screen you can see on your home page without scrolling. Squeezing in above the fold Having your sign-up box in the header or above the fold means you can t promote other parts of your site. You ll have to decide what your priorities are. Is growing your list more important than what might otherwise be in that valuable header space? Maybe it is, maybe it isn t. Need some food for thought about using that precious header space for an sign-up? I ve got a case study for you. This study shows how moving an opt-in box from below the fold to above the fold resulted in 30% more sign-ups over the course of a year. The client was an online retailer in the B2C market. 4 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

5 Sign-up form optimization They did just one thing to get 30% more opt-ins. They moved the sign-up box higher on the page. This sign-up box isn t even in the header area, but it s still much more visible than before. Moving the opt-in box did not hurt sales. In fact, the new page increased sales by 27%. Nice work! Img.1 ClickZ Case Study GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 5

6 48 Ways to Build Your List #2 Use a sign-up form, not just a link You ll get more subscribers if you include the sign-up form on every page of your site, not just a link to click through to sign up. A link or linked image is better than nothing. But having the form right there works better. With the form right on the page, people don t have to click through to another page to sign up. This increases sign-ups. Here s what MECLABS Director Dr. Flint McGlaughlin said in a webinar: Every time you ask someone to click a new page in the process, you lose 50% of your audience. Optimization: Improve ROI from Capture to Conversion. Use this: Not this: Img.2 United Colors of Benetton sign-up form Img.3 H&M newsletter sign-up form 6 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

7 Sign-up form optimization #3 Add more sign-up forms It s great to have an opt-in form above the fold on every page, but that s just a start. Consider adding a second form to the footer of every page on your site. Something like this would work well too: Img.4 Hugo Boss website with 2 sign-up forms GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 7

8 48 Ways to Build Your List I conducted a study on a group of 300 small online retailers and found that most opt-in forms are in the bottom right corner. What s also interesting, even the bottom left corner beat the top right position. Where would you add an opt-in box? 8 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

9 Sign-up form optimization #4 Use an engaging CTA The words you use on your buttons can make a tremendous difference in your results. Run a simple A/B split test to see which words get the most conversions. You could test these six options: 1) Go 2) Sign up 3) Get updates 4) Sign up for FREE 5) Join 6) Sign me up! More examples of sign-up CTA buttons: Img.5 Examples of sign-up buttons GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 9

10 48 Ways to Build Your List If testing your sign-up button copy seems like too much of a hassle, consider this test: Img.6 Sign-up button copy test at WhichTestWon.com In this button copy, Send My Free Report converted 22.9% better than Start my free subscription. That s a nice bump from just one test. Who wouldn t like 23% more subscribers by making one simple change? 10 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

11 Sign-up form optimization #5 Test pop-ups Pop-ups (also called pop-overs, pop-ins, overlays, hover-boxes and light-boxes) have a bad reputation. As soon as you mention them, people say, Oh, those annoying things. Then someone asks, Do those even work? Don t the pop-up blockers keep them from showing? Pop-ups work well. Many of them appear even when a visitor has a pop-up blocker installed. You can make pop-ups less annoying. In fact, many of the best practices for pop-ups the practices that make them most effective also make them less annoying. Best practices for pop-ups 1) Show the pop-up one time. Each unique visitor should seed the pop-up just once per visit. GetResponse gives you an easy way to do this. Just choose how many days you want to pass after the pop-up appears. In this example, a visitor would not see the pop up more than once every 7 days. Img.7 GetResponse Form Builder GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 11

12 48 Ways to Build Your List 2) Show the pop-up after a visitor has been on your site for at least few seconds. This reduces the annoyance factor. In the example above, the pop up is set to appear after a visitor has been on the site for 20 seconds. 3) Offer a bonus for signing up. This applied to your opt-in boxes and to your pop-ups, too. Offer something to entice site visitors to sign up, whether that s a free trial, an ebook, or a discount. Here are some more examples of pop-ups, and light-boxes. Img.8 Pop-up and Lightbox examples 12 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

13 Sign-up form optimization What s the difference between a pop-up and a light-box? Great question! The difference is slight, and it s all in how the area behind the box appears. If the background grays out, or goes dark, as in these examples, you ve got a light-box. If the screen area behind the opt-in box is still visible, it s a pop-up. Img.9 Lightbox example by Mouth Img.10 Pop-up example by Practical Ecommerce GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 13

14 48 Ways to Build Your List #6 Don t ask for too much information A dozen case studies show how a marketer trimmed a sign-up form and got major increases in opt-ins. Here are two good examples: 1) HP saw an increase of 186% in opt-ins when they trimmed form fields. 2) Neil Patel cut the revenue field from the form below and saw a 26% increase in conversions. Img.11 Neil Patel s sign-up form Limit the number of fields. If you don t need certain information, don t ask for it. To maximize opt-ins, ask for address only. They can type their address into a form on your home page, click a button, and BANG they re subscribed. If you need more information, use progressive profiling. In this technique you request just one or two pieces of information at a time. As you build a relationship, you ask for more information. 14 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

15 Sign-up form optimization #7 Offer an incentive to sign up If you want subscribers, you ll have to do better than just ask people to sign up for our s. Visitors need a compelling reason to give you their address. Their inbox is already full. They don t have enough time to read even 20% of the s they get every day. If you want them on your list, you ll need to sell them on What s In It For Me? (WIIFM). The simplest way is to write a short report (5 pages or so) on how to solve one of their main problems. If you want to do an extra-good job, add these 3 steps: 1) Write a second report that solves a different problem. 2) Split-test the two sign-up offers. 3) Rinse and repeat. It s worth spending time to tweak your sign-up offer. Think of all the work you do to get people to see your opt-in form. If you could get 10% or 20% more subscribers for all that work, what would that be worth to you? Here s how some bloggers lure visitors onto their lists. Img.12 How bloggers use sign-up forms GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 15

16 48 Ways to Build Your List Before we move on, you should know that some marketers have had lots of success by offering the newsletter as the incentive. In other words, they put the whole newsletter and sign up for our messages model aside. Instead, they offer an e-course. The e-course is a week- or month-long autoresponder series. Once people are on the autoresponder, they re on the list. The marketer can send messages until they unsubscribe and some do. This technique of ing people until they either buy or unsubscribe is sometimes called buy or die. Here s how Contentrix does it. (Note how they present the course as a $97 value you get for free) Img.13 Contentrix e-course sign-up form 16 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

17 Sign-up form optimization #8 Include a link to previous newsletters Descriptions of our updates are great. But a newsletter archive shows people exactly what they ll get. A newsletter archive gets you more subscribers, and it gives you a great way to re-purpose content. Each newsletter edition can be its own page. You can add a new category to your site to round up all the editions. The newsletters themselves can be in PDF format or saved as high-quality images. If that sounds like too much work, we ve got good news for you. GetResponse can automate the newsletter archive for you. Just go to your campaign settings page (click the little gear wheel just to the right of the campaign pull-down menu). Then go to the Profile tab. It looks like this: Img.14 GetResponse campaign settings profile tab GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 17

18 48 Ways to Build Your List Click the newsletter directory link at the bottom. You ll see a page that lists all the newsletters you ve sent for that campaign. Here s our archive: Img.15 GetResponse newsletter archive Are your newsletters simple enough to be readable as images? If so, create a Pinterest board or Facebook gallery of past newsletters. Presto there s another way to re-purpose your content, and another way to flesh out your social media sites. Here s an example of a newsletter archive link in an opt-in box from PracticalEcommerce.com: Img.16 PracticalEcommerce sign-up 18 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

19 Sign-up form optimization #9 Include a link to your privacy policy This reassures prospective subscribers. Nobody wants to get spammed. Though it might seem obvious (of course you re not going to spam them!) it helps to say so and to put the link to your privacy policy just below the sign-up form. Here s an example from MarketingProfs.com: Maybe you re still on the fence about taking up space with a privacy policy link. If so, consider the results of this case study from WhichTestWon in The only difference between the two forms is the privacy policy link below the button. The version with the privacy link got 19.1% more signups. Img.17 MarketingProfs newsletter sign-up Img.18 WhichTestWon sign-up test with or without the privacy policy link GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 19

20 48 Ways to Build Your List #10 Add a testimonial This is a marketing principle called social proof. You must be good, because others say so. It was described by Robert B. Cialdini in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Marketers have applied it in hundreds of ways in countless marketing projects. Why is social proof used so often? Because it works. Add a testimonial about your messages near the opt-in box. It lets prospective subscribers know others enjoy your newsletter. You can include a static quote like the one below from Ash Ambirge s site. Or let people know how many subscribers you have, as Social Media Examiner does. Img.20 Social Media Examiner newsletter sign -up Img.19 Ash Ambirge s sign-up form 20 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

21 Sign-up form optimization Another way to use social proof would be to put your social buttons, with interaction counts, next to your opt-in box. That s not as specific as someone saying they love your messages, but it gives you enough credibility to help. What if you don t have 390,000 subscribers or great testimonials? You ask for them. The testimonials, I mean. If you don t have 100,000 subscribers, the easiest way to get social proof is to go with just one good testimonial. Keep in mind that you don t need 100,000 subscribers to be impressive. If you re in a niche market, 10,000 subscribers may be enough. Or maybe it will take just 1,000 or 3,000 subscribers to get a lift for your opt-in box. The only way to know is to test. Here s another example showing subscriber counts and social media accounts. It s an impressive dashboard that shows how much influence the Content Marketing Institute has. And it gives people a clickable way to join whichever channel they prefer. Img.22 Marketing Institute social proof sign-up form GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 21

22 48 Ways to Build Your List #11 Add a home page opt-in This opt-in form appears only on your home page. It is sometimes called a resource box. These opt-ins take up the full width of the top of the home page area, filling most of the space above the fold. While it s a commitment to give that much real estate to an opt-in form, there s a good reason for it. Home page opt-in forms work. One blogger reports his client saw a 500% increase by switching from a top right navigation opt-in box to a full-width box. Many of the best-converting home page opt-in forms include a video, too. Here are some examples of total commitment to getting more subscribers: Img.23 BoostBlogTraffic homepage opt-in Img.24 Dr. Mike homepage opt-in 22 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

23 Sign-up form optimization #12 Test your opt-in box Other list-building tactics mention testing. This one focuses on it. It may generate your best results. You can move your opt-in box higher on the page, and you can write enticing copy to get people to subscribe, and you can offer a free report. But how do you know if you re increasing your opt-in rate? That s where testing comes in. For example, which one of these opt-in boxes do you think gets the most subscribers? (Note: DIYThemes.com used the testing tool Visual Website Optimizer) Img.25 DIYThemes opt-in A/B test It was Variation #2, the center option. The control one is above. Img.26 DIYThemes opt-in A/B test In other words: test, test, test! Design a few variants of your opt-in form, changing elements such as: CTA button s color, headline copy, social proof or even the entire layout. Once you ve got the design, publish your forms and monitor the results. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 23

24 48 Ways to Build Your List #13 Add an opt-in on the About us page The About us page is one of the most important pages on your site, yet most of us don t give it the attention it deserves. It is an opportunity to sell your site to your visitors. More important, it s a great opportunity to get visitors onto your list. Add at least two customized opt-in forms to your About us page. One should be toward the top between two paragraphs, and another one below (again between two paragraphs). Here s a nice format for an About Us page: Headline Paragraph: Who this site is for Full-width opt-in form Paragraph: What we offer Paragraph: About the founder/owner Full-width opt-in form On the next page you ll see the top segment of the About page from ChrisDucker.com. As you can see, the full-width opt-in form is not like the home page opt-in form. It s a skinny row of two form fields and the opt-in button, not a square area like the home page examples. 24 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

25 Sign-up form optimization Img.27 About us page examples from Chris Ducker GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 25

26 48 Ways to Build Your List #14 Add a form to your video We ll talk about capturing leads with YouTube annotations later. For the moment let s talk about getting more subscribers with videos on your site. The first thing you ll need is a media player that lets you embed an opt-in form in the video. There are four that let you do that: Wistia, Viewbix, OptinPlayer and HeroCaster. Wistia is the best-known media player and is also a video hosting service. Wistia refers to its opt-in feature as turnstile. Here s what their embedded turnstile opt-in forms looks like: Img.27 Video player sign-up form example from Wistia 26 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

27 Sign-up form optimization You can gate the video, so visitors can see the video only if they enter their address. Or you can put the opt-in form at the end, or even in the middle of the video. Wistia recommends putting the opt-in form about 15 seconds into the video. That gives people a nice introduction, so they are more likely to enter their address so they can view the rest. Wistia has tested where to place an opt-in form and has gotten as high as an 11% opt-in rate from the example shown above. Be careful about requiring an upfront. It can suppress views. Test which opt-in placement works best. Here s an example showing a ViewBix opt-in form from Pinterest marketer Cheryl Stinchcomb s website. Img.28 ViewBix opt-in form from Cheryl Stinchcomb GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 27

28 48 Ways to Build Your List #15 Add a fixed bar The fixed bar is an opt-in form that you add to your website in a form of a horizontal bar that is fixed to the top or bottom of your page. In the last few years they ve become very popular among marketers and tech-savvy bloggers. And there are a couple of reasons for that. Img.29 ProBlogger fixed bar opt-in form First of all, they have a nice, unobtrusive, but highly visible form. The bar follows you if you scrool the page up and down and doesn t cover up much of the important content. On top of that, it s very easy to implement and run A/B Tests on the fixed bars, which may not always be the case with other popular opt-in methods. The only drawback (and an advantage at the same time) is the limited space you get in the sign-up bar. You need to choose the exactly right amount of text and fields to fill-in so that the form doesn t look cluttered, but continues to draw attention and engagement. 28 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

29 Social media Social media GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 29

30 48 Ways to Build Your List #16 Add an opt-in to your Facebook page Facebook is a huge resource for marketers. If you do only one thing to build your list, add a custom tab where Facebook visitors can sign up for your list. It takes less than 30 minutes using the GetResponse app available here. The app creates a nice sign-up tab like the one below. The setup for creating the tab is super-simple. Just make sure you re logged into both your Facebook account and your GetResponse account. Download a pdf tutorial of how to set it up or get a video here. Img.30 DamNation Facebook fanpage 30 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

31 Social media Here s how it looks when you click the tab. This sign-up form is simple. You can dress up yours as you like. Use testimonials and other opt-in form best practices covered in the previous section. Img.31 DamNation Facebook fanpage sign-up form Consider creating a separate campaign for people who sign up for your list through Facebook. You may want to treat Facebook subscribers different than other subscribers. Having them in a separate campaign is the easiest way to do that, and it won t create much extra work. When you re sending newsletters to your primary list, you can check a box to send it to your Facebook subscribers, too. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 31

32 48 Ways to Build Your List #17 Host a contest on Facebook You can run Facebook contests to get likes. Or you can generate customer engagement by encouraging comments and photo posting. Either is a great opportunity to capture addresses. And we re all about the addresses. First, you ll need a third-party app. Heyo is an excellent, easy-to-use Facebook contest app. It has many extra features and you can download a CSV file with collected contacts that you can import into your GetResponse account. There are various types of Facebook contests: sweepstakes, video, photo and posts. The last three are for generating content and user engagement. We re interested in sweepstakes. Your sweepstakes prize can be something like an ipad or a gift certificate in exchange for information about the visitor. For example, they enter their address for a chance to win. You might also want their first name and their zip code, especially if you re a brick-and-mortar business. Make your offer something that will be interesting to your visitors. It should be relevant to your product or service and relevant to the interests of your ideal customers. If you re a retailer or a service business, gift certificates are excellent. A travel site might offer a trip. A restaurant could offer dinner for two. After you pick your prize and your app, it s still not time to post that contest. Read the Facebook page guidelines. Facebook takes contests down if they don t follow their rules. A short version of the rules includes: 1) Disclose who is sponsoring the contest. 2) State that the contest is not in any way associated with Facebook. 3) Explain who qualifies to take part. 4) Disclose that you will add them to your newsletter list. 5) Disclose that you may use their name and photograph in promotional materials later (if you plan to). 32 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

33 Social media 6) Follow all the contest rules that apply to you on a local, state and federal level. 7) Don t contact the contest winners through Facebook. Let them know they ve won through . If #5 sounds confusing, check out the official Facebook contest rules. To build the contest page, you may need the help of a designer. Your contest page should have a clean, bold design visitors can understand at a glance. When it s up (and tested) then promote it. Aren t you glad you have a way to segment Facebook users in your list? Img.32 Facebook contest examples by RentTheRunAway and Lennar GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 33

34 48 Ways to Build Your List #18 Create a LinkedIn group LinkedIn is more appropriate for B2B companies and consultants. But retailers and non-profits could use it to their advantage, too. LinkedIn allows you to create groups. Some groups are open, which means anyone can join. For closed groups, you must apply and wait for approval. When someone joins a group, the group owner can send a welcome message. That message can include a prompt to sign up for updates. LinkedIn groups can also send automatic group-activity digests. They no longer send automatic welcome messages, but the group manager can do so manually. But the true goal is to drive people to the website to subscribe. Most people on LinkedIn don t have their own groups, but that doesn t mean you can t have one. All you need is a topic and the time to fill out the form on the following page. You grow your list when you send a welcome . This is not a way to get 10,000 subscribers overnight. But it s a proven way to build a small, super-targeted, high-value list. After you ve created your LinkedIn group, you can invite people to join. This is a great way for service businesses and high-end retailers to reach prospects and build a community. Once you get people into the group, you ll need to give them regular updates with valuable information. Otherwise they ll leave. This is another opportunity to re-use newsletter content. And because LinkedIn is also a social site, you may get more feedback than in distribution to inboxes. As with any social media channel, make sure it s not all about you. Add polls and industry reports, and encourage group members to post. This means you may not have absolute control over what happens, but that s the nature of social media. You publish information then watch what people do with it. You can t have absolute control while sharing ideas and creating a community. Remember also that effective marketing is no longer just a one-way communication method. 34 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

35 Social media This is the form for creating a LinkedIn group: GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 35

36 48 Ways to Build Your List #19 Ask blog commentators to sign up If someone engages with your blog by commenting, they may want to subscribe to your list. The moment they submit a blog comment is a great time to ask. GetResponse offers a free WordPress plugin (screen shot below) lets you turn your blog visitors into engaged readers and buyers. Just follow the installation guide here and start collecting new subscribers as they leave their comments. 36 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

37 Social media #20 Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards In May 2013 Twitter rolled out new ad formats called Twitter Cards. One of them is a lead generation card that lets advertisers capture addresses from within an expanded tweet. These tweets allow about 50 characters of description, a large image, and a call to action. The user s Twitter name and address are pre-populated in the form. The pre-populated address is a big advantage. Twitter lets you customize the copy on the subscribe button. When they click it, they subscribe. Img.33 Zartis using Twitter Leader Generation Tabs Twitter lead generation cards integrate with your GetResponse account. For setup, go to My Account > Integrations and select Twitter ads. Then choose a campaign for your Twitter leads. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 37

38 48 Ways to Build Your List Click Get the Submit URL for the URL to paste into your Twitter ads. And voila! Your new subscribers will go into the specified campaign. Img.34 Zartis using Twitter Leader Generation Tabs 38 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

39 Social media #21 Promote your newsletter in your tweets It s easy to get followers on Twitter, even if you only tweet a few times a day. You ll get even more if you follow other people, especially if they tweet about the same things you do. Pitch your newsletters to your Twitter audience. Don t abuse this, of course. Only about 20% of your tweets should self-promote. But that still leaves lots of tweets to sing the praises of your s. Img.35 Users tweeting about their newsletters GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 39

40 48 Ways to Build Your List You re not limited to tweeting about something just once. Many top bloggers tweet about a post 3 to 5 times over the course of a day. Other bloggers tweet whole sentences from their post, getting as many as 15 tweets out of each post. You can pull content for tweets out of every article in your newsletters. And you can write a dozen or so sentences in each newsletter article that are short and focused enough to be tweetable. You can even embed a tweet this feature into your so your readers can tweet sentences from the articles. Even if your message isn t ready to go yet, you can announce the content you re working on. Your followers will enjoy teasers about what s ahead in the next . It s legit to tweet things like this: GetResponse makes this easy an automated way to tweet whenever you send out an update. To set this up, go to My account > Integrations and select Twitter. Just click the Connect to Twitter account button. A prompt asks you to give the GetResponse app access to your Twitter account so it can post for you, and you re done. Img.36 GetResponse automatic Twitter and Facebook sharing feature 40 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

41 Social media #22 Promote your newsletter on YouTube YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world. You and your content need to be on it. Videos are a very popular content marketing format. They can be very engaging and easily digestible. Unlike some other types of content, your audience can watch videos without much effort or need for specific kind of software. Even if you can t bear the idea of seeing yourself in a video, you can do great screencasts and other video formats. It doesn t have to be perfect. It just needs to get out there. If you think your videos have to be perfect, go look at YouTube. Click around. Your confidence will rise. But let s get back to . A cheap, easy way to get more sign-ups from YouTube videos is to utilize a feature called YouTube Cards. There are different types of cards, including Merchandise, Channel, Fan Funding or Video/playlist card, but the one that is best for generating new leads is the Associated website card. It s an easy to implement and non-invasive list building method so you d better check it out. As you can see in the image on the next page, Associated website card lets you create a small tab that is added to your YouTube video. When the user decides to click on it, he ll be directed to another website where there should be a sign-up form already waiting for them. Be careful however! Make sure to have it optimized not to lose your chance to convert your visitor at this point, if you ve already managed to generate their interest and drive action! GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 41

42 48 Ways to Build Your List Img.37 How GetResponse promotes their offer using the YouTube Cards 42 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

43 Social media #23 Use Pinterest to promote your s Pinterest continues to gain attention and attract new users. In fact, it has recently outpaced Twitter as far as the rate of growth goes. Although it might not work for every audience, Pinterest is worth the attention as its users buy and share even more than Facebook users. There are two ways to use Pinterest to build your list. The first is to drive traffic to gated content. You create a pin about a recipe and link the pin to a page that requires users to enter their address before they can see the recipe. The pin might look like this: Img.38 Pinterest gated content example GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 43

44 48 Ways to Build Your List If you click on the image, it goes to this page: Img.39 Landing page with the gated content presented to Pinterest users There are two interesting things going on here. First, there s a pop-up to view the content. See #34 for how to gate content like this. Second, notice how long the light-box copy is. This is the longest copy I ve ever seen on a lightbox like a mini landing page. Another technique is to create a pin about a contest or sweepstakes you re running. The pin links to the contest entry page, which requires an address. Here are a few examples of Pinterest contests. 44 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

45 Social media You can also create an image promotion for your list, like this: Img.40 Newsletter sign-up promotion using Pinterest GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 45

46 48 Ways to Build Your List #24 Use your Google+ page Google+ doesn t offer an easy way to get an opt-in form in front of people, but there are workarounds. Some people have success creating Google+ Notification circles. After people join the circle, you can send them an update every time you post to that circle. It s better than nothing. But it still means Google is the intermediary and that you still don t have the person s address. At least, you can announce your newsletter on Google+ as Chris Brogan does below. Note that he s not just saying sign up for my newsletter. He s saying he s put his best content into the newsletter. It s a way to say to your Google+ audience: Like what you ve seen from me so far? Then sign up for my updates there s even better stuff there. Img.41 Chris Brogan promoting his newsletter subscription using Google+ 46 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

47 Social media #25 Create a SlideShare account This technique is best for consultants and B2B companies because of the nature of the SlideShare audience. But a non-profit or a retailer could do well with SlideShare, too. Slideshare lets you post presentations in PowerPoint, KeyNote and PDF. You can add audio, too. If you upgrade to a Pro Enterprise account you can also collect sales leads from your content. Don t dismiss SlideShare just because you don t have any PowerPoint presentations on hand. Think like you did with Pinterest. Make your information visual, but this time, put it into a slideshow format. It s easy to create a 10-slide PowerPoint deck from a blog post. You ve got the cover slide that s your blog headline. Then the next slide or two describes the problem or situation. The next 3-10 slides show how you solved the problem. Your last slide prompts people to sign up for your list. SlideShare is big enough to get plenty of traffic. But it s not so competitive that it takes a full-scale campaign to get exposure. In other words, it s a good balance of ample traffic and low competition. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 47

48 48 Ways to Build Your List Here s an example of a SlideShare presentation. See the opt-in box? It s the yellow box just above the SlideShare control arrows. Below you ll also see the entire form that appears after you click on the yellow box. 48 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

49 Social media #26 Include social sharing buttons Make your messages easy to share. That includes putting social media buttons in your messages. It also includes adding a send to a friend sharing button. While you re at it, include a subscribe link in the footer of your s. That makes it easy for the person who gets the forwarded to sign up for your list. By adding those sharing buttons, you give subscribers the power to promote your list. You ve built goodwill by delivering good content and honoring reader preferences. Give them the tools to share your s, and they will indeed share them with their friends. This is one of the most powerful ways to grow an list. In 2013, GetResponse reported that social sharing boosts click-through rates by 158%. Their same study, done two years earlier in March 2011, showed social sharing buttons raised CTRs by 115%. What do you think that stat will be next year? GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 49

50 50 Ways to Build Your List Online marketing 50 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

51 Online marketing #27 Use paid traffic to send people to a landing page Landing pages are one of the classic Internet marketing tools. They are as essential to online marketing campaigns as marketing itself. What s also important is that these two elements go hand in hand. They mark a specific kind of business plan that has worked for years and is here to stay. The effectiveness of landing pages depends on the amount of traffic they attract and how efficiently they manage to persuade visitors into taking the desired action. If you re planning to improve the first factor, using online advertising services such as Google AdWords may be of your interest. Using paid traffic to attract new visitors is a great promotional method. It allows you to quickly reach even highly specific target groups. This however, requires for you to devote enough time to setup the page properly, making sure that all of the elements are in the right place. Typically, it may take about 2 weeks for a landing page to be fully launched, including some testing and adjustments, which you ll surely need to apply. You should also keep in mind that there many elements affecting how much you will have to pay for your campaign. These include e.g. your chosen keywords, the industry you are in, number of competitors, account structure, and how effectively you ll design your landing page. It s worth remembering therefore that each of your pages should include some of the following elements: A headline A sales letter (sometimes a sales paragraph or a video) A freebie (such as a free report) An opt-in box GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 51

52 48 Ways to Build Your List Having set up the page properly remember to direct the newly subscribed users into your autoresponder sequence. In other words, you should prepare a series of messages that will be sent to your new audience one after another, in a timed sequence. Provided that the s will include evergreen and engaging content you get the chance to build rapport with your subscribers even if you re not running any promotional campaigns at that period of time. There is another critical step if you want your landing pages to work: testing. If you use GetResponse Landing Page Creator then be sure to try out the A/B Testing feature to try different approaches and analyze what really resonates with your audience and makes them click. This way you can even cut down the costs of running promotional campaigns and require less traffic to generate your desired effects. Img.42 Landing Page example by Kissmetrics 52 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

53 Online marketing #28 Write a Kindle ebook Kindle books have a lot going for them. They re on Amazon, which gets massive traffic. Amazon is a sales MACHINE. People buy on Amazon. Kindle books are readable on ipads, iphones and on laptops and computers. Amazon offers powerful tools for promotion. There are dozens of sites devoted to promoting Kindle books, including free ones. Nothing builds your authority quite as much as writing a book. You don t have to write 200 pages. Most Kindle books are about 50 pages. Kindle books can become a small but steady revenue stream. You use your Kindle book to get eyeballs and reputation. It provides proof of your expertise. And you leverage that into more subscribers by asking them to join your list. You can promote your updates, your website and your services several times throughout your book. You could even include content from your message in your book, and let people know where the content is from. Another best practice for Kindle books is to add a page at the end of the book where you sell your newsletter. Include an extra-good freebie and show (not tell) people what to expect when they sign up. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 53

54 48 Ways to Build Your List When you click through, you re brought to a page like this: Img.42 Example from the Kindle book Marketing That Doesn t Suck Notice this sign-up prompt doesn t say anything about joining a list. The marketer just wants to give you a gift. 54 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

55 Online marketing #29 Promote your newsletter in your signature Lots of people have quotes in their signature line. Some are funny. Some are philosophical. Some are both. Yours can have a prompt to join your list. You can write something simple like: Sign up for weekly updates on how to grow your list at YourSite.com. That s a fine start. Img.43 Setting up the signature in Gmail But you can also do one better: Create a landing page for this signature link. Send people to a page designed and optimized to get them to sign up for your list. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 55

56 48 Ways to Build Your List #30 Partner with other companies and websites There are all sorts of ways to partner with other websites to grow your list. Many marketers have built their list using partnerships as the sole means. Partnering could mean letting a related website put their sign-up box on your site, while you put yours on their site. It could mean swapping advertising space in your newsletters or website. It could mean just buying advertising and creating a sign-up process, like the squeeze page example. There are several things to consider when you are negotiating a partnership. The first is tracking. You need to know what works. Even a simple free tool like Google s Analytics tags will work. Bit.ly would help too. Anything is better than nothing. Track the quality of your subscribers. You don t want people to just grab your free offer and never open another . You re building an audience; they need to like you and want more of what you offer. To track new subscribers, add them to their own campaign inside your GetResponse account. That makes it easy to send a customized welcome message or series. And it makes it easier to judge the performance based on open rates and purchases. You have to be picky about who you partner with. They in turn should want to know a bit about you. Good sites and companies don t just turn anyone loose on their audience. Make sure your site is good enough to pass muster with the sort of people you want to partner with. Always partner with people who treat their subscribers and customers well. 56 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

57 Online marketing #31 Add send to a friend buttons to product pages Take a look at this chart from the Marketing Sherpa report. Notice that 58% of marketers say it is very easy to get subscribers with the to a friend tactic. Now look at all the other methods for building an list in that chart. Humble little send to a friend buttons beat every other tactic, even signing people up when they re placing an order. Too many retailers and content producers have missed this amazing sleeper tactic for growing an list. But you don t have to be one of them. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 57

58 48 Ways to Build Your List If your website is on WordPress, there are plugins that create a send link to a friend widget. One is named Send Link to A Friend. If your site is not on WordPress, then ShareThis is a better choice. As you can see from the screen below, this retailer has their send to a friend prompt below the product videos. Img.44 TackleDirect using the Send Link to A Friend method 58 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

59 Online marketing #32 Create a mobile app Creating a mobile app is simpler than you might think. It s less expensive, too. In the last few years dozens of companies have created platforms that let you create apps. Their drag-and-drop interface makes it about as easy as creating newsletters in GetResponse. Many app-creation services will help you through the approval process to get your app on itunes or Google Play, too. Prices range from free to over $100 a month. But $29 to $59 a month will buy you enough features to create apps that generate business and new subscribers. You can get an attractive layout with the ability to serve several thousand users. And you can add monetization, analytics, e-commerce and video. Your users will be able to do cool things like schedule an appointment, upload files and fill out an opt-in form. Most platforms offer a free version to try out their interface. Many give you a way to see your app live on your phone for testing. About half of all messages are read on mobile devices. It only makes sense to give users what they want and create a mobile app. Especially when it s something you could do in a few days or less. Img.45 Mobile apps with sign-up forms GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 59

60 48 Ways to Build Your List #33 Gate your content You may have seen websites that limit access to content until you ve signed up for their updates. The website America s Test Kitchen from Way to Build Your List in #23 is an example of this tactic. It s called gating content. It means visitors can t access content unless they provide an address, Facebook like, or even money. A plugin called Opt-in Content Locker lets you gate your content. And it integrates with GetResponse. Here s an example in action. This is before a user has signed up: Img.46 An example of gated content - step 1 60 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

61 Online marketing This is after they ve signed up: Img.47 An example of gated content - step 2 Opt-in content locker takes about five minutes to configure. And you can specify which GetResponse campaign to add new subscribers to. This means you can customize the welcome sequence and mail for these users if you wish. The plugin is smart enough to allow search engines to see through the gated content. And it s smart enough not to ask the user for sign-up on other pages if they ve already signed up. The visitor fills out the form on one page, and then they can see all the content on the rest of your site. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 61

62 48 Ways to Build Your List #34 Host a webinar Many marketers say webinars are the best way to build an list. If you have a presentation prepared and are willing to do some promotion, you can use a webinar to add people to your list. Just sign them up for the webinar, and you ve got their . LinkedIn groups are a particularly good place to promote webinars. Whole books are available about how to run a successful webinar. Seek more information if this format appeals to you. For starters, consider surveying your existing audience to see what they want to learn about. Second, use a popular solution like GetResponse Webinars to manage the technical side. You ll save plenty of time setting up your online presentations, and will be able to focus fully on delivering delightful content for your viewers. On top of that, they integrate seamlessly with your campaigns, so you ll be able to manage invitations and post-webinar follow-ups with ease. 62 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

63 Online marketing The good news with webinars is that after you re done, you ve got great ondemand content for your site. Webinars have a lot more going for them than just getting addresses. They let your audience know you better and position you as an expert. Here s a nice example of a webinar confirmation page. Many marketers add people to their lists when they register for the webinar. But it s best to ask, or to at least add a disclaimer to the registration form. Img.48 Webinar registration example GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 63

64 48 Ways to Build Your List #35 Add a sign-up form into the shopping cart Surprised? Did you assume that if someone places an order on your site, you could add them to your list? Many marketers have drawn that conclusion. But some customers don t want to subscribe. We should honor that preference. Ask for their address early in the checkout process, not at the end. If they abandon their cart, you can them with a reminder that their order is waiting. If you use Zen Cart, there s a plugin you can use to integrate GetResponse. Head over here to download it. You ll see installation instructions. If you use another shopping cart, integration takes a few more steps, but it s definitely worth it. Check out the GetResponse Developer Resource Center to learn more. This is an example of a ZenCart checkout page. Notice the opt-in box just above the submit button. The retailer is asking customers whether they want their s in HTML or text format. 64 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

65 Online marketing #36 Guest post on related blogs If you ve been online for a few years, you may remember article marketing. It doesn t work as well anymore. But the new version of it, guest posting, does work. In guest posting, you pick a blog you want to write for, then you pitch the owner of the blog with a blog post idea. When the blog owner says yes, you write the post and get a byline and a link back to your site. You almost always get a one-line bio with the link. But instead of a standard bio, you can pitch your newsletter. Your link should go to a landing page designed to sell the benefits of signing up for your list. Target it to the kind of audience that would appreciate the post you wrote. All the pieces should fit together. Guest blogging can be a powerful tool for generating traffic and building their list. It can position you as an expert just as well as publishing a book or doing public speaking. Some consultants and professionals use guest posting as their sole tactic. A well-written blog post can get lots of attention on a popular blog. It can skyrocket your traffic and your subscriber count. There are whole books and courses written about how to do guest posting. In a nutshell, you need to be well-acquainted with the blog you re pitching. You should read posts on the site and make regular, helpful comments. Then craft a post idea that will appeal to the site s owner. Deliver your promised post within a week of acceptance. That post needs to sparkle. If you are pitching to a major-league blog, it helps to have built up a series of successful posts with smaller blogs first. Feeling confident and up for a challenge? Got interesting ideas you d like to share with thousands of readers around the world? Why don t you write a guest post for GetResponse? If this sounds like a fun project to you, let them know through this form how you could contribute to the GetResponse blog. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 65

66 48 Ways to Build Your List #37 Create an online tool that requires registration This is a twist on an old SEO technique called link baiting. You create an amazing resource on your site. This resource attracts people to visit your site, and also links to it. The link bait gathers addresses instead of links. It does this by requiring registration. MajesticSEO.com is a good example of this technique. Majestic SEO is an excellent free SEO tool that requires you to register to use it. Epicurious requires registration to save your recipes. Sites with great tools can amass huge lists by offering a useful resource. Many software websites offer a free version of their program in exchange for an address. You could use your work from the mobile app we talked about earlier; just re-purpose the app as a web-based version. But it s better to create something unique that s not available elsewhere. FitDay.com is another example of a free tool that requires registration to use. 66 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

67 Offline marketing Offline marketing GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 67

68 48 Ways to Build Your List #38 Use the fishbowl Put a fishbowl by your checkout counter or by the reception desk in your office. It s the oldest trick in the book for building an list. The fishbowl is a lowtech version of the cool Forms on the Go app we ll talk about in #39. People still put business cards in fishbowls. If your customers aren t the sort to carry business cards, leave them a notepad and a pen to write their address on. You do have to offer something in exchange for the address. People are much less eager to sign up for newsletters than they used to be. Offer something better than just join our list. Raffles work. So do free lunches (especially if they are for two or more people) and company discounts. You may have to test some different enticements before you find a winner. You may also have to work on how to present your messages. This goes back to testing which promotion copy works best for getting sign-ups. You must show how your messages are better than the typical boring newsletter. For example, what if you put a printed version of your newsletter next to the fishbowl? Then people could see exactly what they were signing up for. If it works online, maybe it will work in person. You ve got to get people s interest. Your s have to be good enough to be worth not just reading, but worth mentioning to a friend later. As Seth Godin would say, you have to be remarkable. Your s need to be so good that they will make your readers more interesting people. Then you have to convey that coolness and value in your list growth efforts, even if it s through something as humble as the fish bowl. 68 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

69 Offline marketing #39 Use the Forms on the Go app This terrific little app lets you gather information in person, even if you don t have an Internet connection. Forms on the Go is a free app that integrates with your GetResponse account. It s made by the same company that runs GetResponse and is available both from the Google play and App Store. Forms on the Go is a fantastic tool for brick-and-mortar retailers and service businesses. Street vendors and exhibitors at crafts fairs and farmer s markets can use it too. You can bring it to speaking gigs, to trade shows, or to any live event. And don t limit yourself to collecting addresses. You could gather all sorts of information about your customers. This would let you deliver much better information and services to them. Img.49 A screenshot from the Forms on the Go app GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 69

70 48 Ways to Build Your List #40 Use text to join Text to join lets people send you a text request asking the recipient to subscribe to your list. This makes it easy for people to sign up for your list when they are away from their computer. It s an excellent alternative to fishbowls and printed sign-up forms. You can place text to join prompts anywhere: on business cards, billboards, even envelopes. Here s how text to join works: The text to join provider reserves a five-digit number for each customer s use. You reserve a keyword through the text to join provider. Something like GIFTS for example. Your prospective subscribers send a text message to join your list. The text might read something like GIFTS name@gmail.com to 45375, for example. This subscribes them. You now also have their phone number. Check whether the text to join provider integrates with GetResponse. If so, you can add new subscribers to a campaign set up just for them. Two services I ve tried for text to join are CallLoop and Join By Text. Join By Text has direct integration with GetResponse. 70 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

71 Offline marketing #41 Use QR codes QR codes are another way to make it easy for people to sign up when they re away from their computers. Here s how to set up a QR opt-in sequence: 1) Create a simple sign-up page that looks great on a mobile phone. All you need is the field and the join button. Add a one sentence prompt if you wish, and maybe one more field... if you must. 2) Create a QR code from within your GetResponse account. Go to My account > Multimedia Studio. Look for the tab on the far right that says QRCode. You ll see a page like this: Img.50 GetResponse Multimedia Studio GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 71

72 48 Ways to Build Your List Click the blue Add new QRCode button. Fill out the form something like this: Img.51 GetResponse QRCode generator 3) Optional: You can have your logo or another simple image embedded into your QR code. You won t be able to use the free GetResponse QRCode generator if you create a stylized QR code, but it s still an option. QR codes don t have to be just little blocks of black and white. They can have complex colors and images put into them. Just test the new image in several different QR scanning tools to make sure they work. 4) Put that QR code all over the place. 5) Extra credit. If you are a data-tracking fiend... put a different QR code on all your different marketing materials. That way you ll know whether it s your invoices or your business card or your door hangers that are getting all those sign-ups. Here s a QR code on the back of a business card. 72 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

73 Offline marketing #42 Add a sign-up prompt on all printed materials Now you ve got different ways to get people to sign up while they re on the go. They can text to join, scan QR codes, or use Forms on the Go. So get them out in front of people. Put the call to action to join your list on every piece of marketing material you ve got. Here s a list of just some of the places you could put the call to action to join your list: Business cards Letterhead Envelopes Invoices Packing slips (for you retailers) All marketing reports and other information you give away (printed or not) Business checks (dare you...) Contracts Door hangers Receipts Johnny boards Menus Company vehicles You get the idea. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 73

74 48 Ways to Build Your List #43 Start a series of speaking engagements Public speaking has many of the benefits of publishing a book. You look like an expert, and if you record your talk, you have a nice piece of content to show off for years. An added benefit is that you get more feedback faster. Even if people don t say a word to you, that s feedback. This can help you hone your message so it is more engaging. As you know, there are entire books about public speaking, and this is a mere page. But I have some tips: 1. Keep your talk short. No more than 45 minutes, and 30 may work better. 2. Keep your slides as simple as possible. 3. Give people a handout with links so they can research things you bring up in your talk. The best way to do this is to create 3-5 tutorials for beginners. Mention these tutorials during your talk. You could say something like, There s a tutorial on my website on exactly how to do that. The link to it is on your handout. Do that a couple of times, and people will end up going to your site to learn more. Reference your newsletter at least three times, referring to past articles. Of course, you can include links to those articles in your handout if you have posted your past newsletters on your site. For recording the video, you can get by just fine with an ipad or an iphone. Get yourself a $25 tripod for each camera. Buy a noise-canceling microphone for each camera so the sound is decent. 74 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

75 Offline marketing #44 Use the phone At first I thought using the phone to get sign-ups was crazy. Only customer service people would do this, and then only if you wanted to torture them. But then I heard an interview by Perry Marshall with one of his students. This student helps attorneys with their marketing. He has figured out an excellent way to get sign-ups from his sometimes unapproachable prospects. His brother does the cold calling for the business. He s a brave soul who can pound through a hundred calls a day pitching their services. When the attorneys say no and brushes him off, the brother offers the newsletter. Some of them say yes. They receive the newsletter for a couple of months, read the great content, and learn useful ideas. The other brother (the marketer) calls back. By then the attorneys have respect for this guy s marketing skills. They take his calls. Some of them hire him. The s are good enough to turn cold prospects into warm ones. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 75

76 48 Ways to Build Your List #45 Run employee contests Your employees are the front line of customer relations. They know your customers pet peeves, wishes and frustrations. You can leverage their knowledge to build your list. There s nothing like a motivated employee, so pick the right incentive. Then set up an acquisition system that works. That means no one can cheat, customers don t feel pressured, and the addresses you get are correct. You ve just made a major step toward your list-growth goals. So what should you offer? Well, you can offer money, like 50 cents per sign-up, or $50 per week to whichever employee gets the most addresses. You could offer perks, like giving the contest winner an hour off work with pay every Friday afternoon for a month. Select a balanced incentive. It has to be good enough to be worthwhile for the employee. But it should not be so good that your customers start getting pressured for their addresses. The 3 x 5 card below is from a restaurant near me. The waitress asked me to fill one out. She was especially grateful when I did it because she gets a small bonus every week for each completed card. Img.51 Newsletter sign-up form from a restaurant 76 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

77 Minimize opt-outs Minimizing opt-outs GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 77

78 48 Ways to Build Your List #46 Use surveys If you solve people s problems and entertain them a little, they will love you. They ll tell their friends and forward your s and urge others to check out your site. If not, your newsletter will become just another newsletter. So how do you find out what people want to know? There are question and answer sites like Clarity and Quora where you can see what people are struggling with. And there are forums where people ask and answer questions. And there are social media sites where you can find out what people like and respond to... or don t. Or you can just ask them. That s where surveys come in. You can create surveys for free in your GetResponse account. Send your subscribers to the survey. Or send other streams of traffic, paid and unpaid, to the survey. Here are three essential rules for writing surveys: Shorter is better. Aim for no more than seven questions. Five or fewer is better. Keep the end in mind. Exactly what do you want to know? Exactly what are you going to do with that knowledge? Write your survey questions after you ve figured that out. Surveys need incentives, too. What can you offer to spark interest? Would it be a free report or a chance to win a $100 gift certificate? 78 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

79 Minimizing opt-outs #47 Segment your list This is a powerful tool if you know how to use it. You can deliver targeted, relevant content to each subscriber. That means people will be more interested in what you send them. Relevancy is a power principle of direct marketing. It s what made Google AdWords into a trillion dollar business, and it can make your s work, too. As the data from DMA s National Client Survey 2014 shows, a 760% increase in revenue came from segmented s in 2013, up from 55% in It s not only the ROI that is improved. The benefits of segmentation go on and on, so most marketers know they want to segment. The trouble is they may not be sure where to start. Segmentation is best kept simple. If you ve ever done testing, you know how test cells multiply every time you add a variable. List segments are like that, too. Many marketers test only text vs. HTML s. Other simple segmenting options are by gender or by order history. The option below shows an interestbased segmentation. If you ask for too much information up front, you will reduce opt-ins. But you can ask their gender and what they re interested in. That shouldn t be too much. Besides, it may be worth suppressing opt-ins by 10% if you can increase longterm engagement by e.g. 30%. A step up from segmenting by interest is segmenting by behavior, such as purchasing habit. I can attest to the power of segmenting by purchasing behavior. I tripled response rates for a bookseller by segmenting their list by subscriber purchases. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 79

80 48 Ways to Build Your List Segmenting by behavior is harder than segmenting by interest, but it works better. Consider this chart from Marketing Sherpa. One category is segmented campaigns based on behavior. Another is allowed subscribers to specify preferences. Subscriber actual behavior beat stated preferences by 25% - almost double the effectiveness. 80 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.

81 Minimizing opt-outs #48 Use double opt-in In double opt-in, you ask your subscribers to reconfirm their request to sign up. You send an to the address they enter on your opt-in form. The contains a confirmation link. People aren t subscribed until they click that link. Won t that extra step mean you get fewer subscribers? Yes, using double opt-in will reduce how many sign-ups you get. So how much does it reduce your opt-ins? The estimates vary from 40% (Marketing Sherpa) to 14%. That sounds bad until you factor in other things. Like how double opt-in removes all the fake sign-ups (20% or more by some estimates). Double opt-in also preserves deliverability rates. It helps s steer clear of anti-spam advocates like Spamhaus. Using double opt-in minimizes those problems and many more. Double opt-in is also called confirmed opt-in. Beyond its bad rep, it improves the quality and responsiveness of your list. It is one of the best ways to combat list churn, which erodes your list at a rate of 20-30% per year. Double opt-in is about list quality. While we ve been talking about growing your list for over 80 pages, we need to remember that quality matters. The whole reason you want a big list is to get big results. The table below shows how confirmed opt-in wins over single opt-in. As you can see, in the end, double opt-in makes for a better list. GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing. 81

82 48 Ways to Build Your List About GetResponse: GetResponse, World s Easiest Marketing, is a complete marketing platform with a suite of innovative features, including drag-and-drop and landing page creator, advanced analytics, automation and smart list import. Its user-friendly interface, best-in-class 99% deliverability and 5-star Customer Service, make it one of the top solutions available on the market, all at an affordable price. The system is fully scalable and can handle everything from small lists for solo entrepreneurs to high-volume campaigns delivered with superb reliability and 24/7 consulting services. Since its inception in 1997, GetResponse has grown to serve more than 350,000 Customers from 183 countries and now manages and delivers more than 12 billion permission-based s per year. 82 GetResponse - World s Easiest Marketing.